Blackberry maker faulted for copyright infringement

Blackberry can’t seem to catch a break after its upsetting incident with last week’s international service problem. Research in Motion (RIM), Blackberry’s telecommunication provider, announced at a San Francisco conference this week that it plans to run a new operating system called BBX on its Blackberry devices.

Shortly after the announcement, a software company notified Blackberry that the “BBX” name is copyrighted and trademarked for its own software.

Basis International issued a press release this week threatening to take legal action against RIM. The company recently sent RIM a cease and desist letter.

RIM has remained calm in light of the accusation and told Reuters in an email that “RIM has not yet received a copy of the legal complaint described in Basis International’s press release, but we do not believe the marks are confusing, particularly since our respective companies are in different lines of business.”

RIM hoped to launch the new software service to replace its out-of-date QNX software that currently runs its Blackberry devices and keep up with the new generation of software that is running on the iPhone and Android phones.

The announcement was Blackberry’s first public appearance following the distressing service outage it incurred last week. The three-day outage restricted millions of Blackberry users around the world from sending emails and text messages.